Every year, dozens of Star Wars figures are made. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) is one of them.

This figure includes a lightsaber, a pole, handcuffs, and a breakable pillar.

Sculpt/Articulation/Gimmicks/Paint

After several Obi-Wan figures, it stand to reason that some of them are going to be a little less fun than others. As such, there's this release.

Adequate is a good way to describe the figure. The sculpting is just as good as the original AOTC Obi-Wan from 2002, but the pose is dedicated to a pole-grabbing action. As a small statue, he looks good, but the thing is the figure is built around a stabbing gimmick that just doesn't work. Thankfully, the outfit is sculpted in such a way where it's fairly obvious to a Star Wars fan that this is supposed to be Obi-Wan. This is good, because the head isn't exactly obviously Obi-Wan.

A different paint job, or perhaps a different kind of plastic would have made a big difference here. The resulting head is probably the worst of the Episode II Kenobis thus far and since this wasn't the very first one, there's really no excuse for a slide backwards like this. For authenticity's sake, this may be the worst this character has seen in plastic to date.

Obi-Wan is jointed at the neck, hips, and shoulders. His right shoulder has a joint that moves left and right instead of rotating like a typical joint, and this is tied to the stabbing gimmick. Pushing a puch on his belt moves his arm out a little, but when he's holding a weapon, the movement is so insignificant it's hard to see that anything actually happened.

The figure's look is very by-the-numbers and the final product is probably one of the worst of 2003. Not only is it a figure that wasn't really needed, it was done poorly to boot.

Accessories

He includes a lightsaber, handcuffs, a pole, and a pillar.

The lightsaber is nothing new. It's metal, and can jump to the metal in his left hand. While this is neat, it's nothing we haven't seen before.

The pillar is pretty much the same as the one that came with the very first Clones Padme, except the color has been changed slightly. It's a nice extra, thought, just not necessary and it isn't something the figure can really interact with. Padme could be chained to her pillar, Obi-Wan just kinda stands near it.

As the main focus of the toy is an Acklay battle, he has a pole. He can hold it fairly well, but as a toy, it's weak. For display purposes, though, this is great. If you need an Obi-Wan to stand in your arena against the mighty Acklay, this is the weapon you'll want and this is the figure you'll want. As Hasbro was smart enough to make the back of the weapon magnetic, he has no trouble holding it in both arms. However, as mentioned above, the stabbing action is weak.

The real throwaway in this fairly robust lot of extras is a pair of handcuffs. His hands can't be placed close enough together to put both hands in them, not can his hands be raised appropriately to use them to chain him to the pole. Why even bother to include these? They serve no purpose other than to get lost.

Packaging

The 2003 Saga packaging is changed only slightly from that of 2002. It does the trick, it looks fresher, but it's by no means any big change.

Availability

He's pretty much come and gone, but a few new shipments of older product cause him to make sporadic appearances at retail. Keep your eyes open.

Fin

In short, you don't need this. There are dozens of other figures superior to this one, especially other Obi-Wan figures. For display purposes, he isn't totally worthless, but he's one lackluster toy. Still, if you have five bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you might as well snag one and be one step closer to collecting all 2,193. Or whatever number it is we're at now.